Of course, it's easier to maintain your secret control over the levers of world economic power when you can instantly transform into a seemingly benign semi. Just ask Goldstein. And maybe he could explain where the fucking trailer went when Optimus changed to robot form.

You're right Keiran, and I know that Optimus, for example, always carefully shields his true knowledge behind empty, crypto-Communist statements such as "freedom is the right of all sentient beings."

Perhaps our best bet would be to isolate Roller (a rather obvious Jewish phallic symbol, by the way) by jamming his communications with Optimus, then submitting the probe to a grueling interrogation session.

I think that we're ignoring a significant aspect of the Transformers Universe, mainly the recent Beast Wars story in which Optimus Prime (or rather Optimus Primal) was a gorilla. Such a factor exposes a deeper philosophical understanding on the part of the show's creators.

That is, Optimus Primal serves as a symbol of the debate over creationism and evolution. The suggestion, that both can co-exist in harmony, is personified through a robot that practices Judaism and transforms into a gorilla. In addition, this character, who appears on the surface to be such a paradox, is leader of his tribe, thus showing his effort to reconcile these two disparate halves of his psyche.

Ultimately, it reveals yet another paradox: that a sentient robot would take the form of a gorilla. Through this, we can realize our desire to trace our own evolutionary heritage.

I think you can make it simply the struggle to understand the origin of man, you're missing the unspoken themes of exploration of the plurality of man's nature and motivations, as well as a possible Freudian fascination with the animal.

By changing into a beast, Optimus demonstrates the need we all feel to escape societal and moral strictures and allow ourselves to exist on a more basic, elemental level. As beasts we can focus on the ephemeral goals of the now and avoid the half-truths so prevalent in our acceptance of modern society. Note the name 'Optimus Primal' - indicating that one's best choice is surrender to, what Conrad describes as one's 'heart of darkness'.

Me, I'm a little disturbed to discover that the leader of the Transformers (formerly believed to be a devout follower of Judaism) is a furry.